Emmanuel Krivine

Emmanuel Krivine is respected as one of the world’s most distinguished conductors whose elegant and colourful interpretations have made him a favourite with leading orchestras and soloists around the world. Regarded as one of the foremost French musicians today, Krivine has held a number of important positions in France and in September 2017 takes up the post of Music Director of the Orchestre National de France, the orchestra’s first French Music Director in over 40 years. He is a passionate educator, who regularly conducts orchestras of young musicians, and in 2004 he created a period-instrument ensemble, La Chambre Philharmonique, now one of the most important groups of its kind.

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Emmanuel Krivine has conducted the world’s finest orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. In North America, he has conducted the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston Symphony, National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he made a triumphant debut in 2016/17 and returns in 2017/18. He has worked with the Sydney, Melbourne, NHK and Yomiuri Nippon symphony orchestras. A passion for working with chamber orchestras has led to tours with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and he took up the post of Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2015.

During the 2017/18 season, Krivine and the Orchestre National de France mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Claude Debussy in 2018 and perform in concerts around France and Switzerland including at the Festival de Pâques, Aix-en-Provence, the Settimane Musicali di Ascona, Les Grands Interprètes Toulouse, working with top soloists including Martha Argerich, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Renaud Capuçon, Francesco Piemontesi and Maxim Vengerov.

La Chambre Philharmonique has gained recognition with its award-winning recordings on Naïve, including most recently a complete set of Beethoven symphonies, awarded Editor’s Choice by Gramophone. His discography also includes recordings with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Maria João Pires, London Symphony Orchestra with Vadim Repin, and the Orchestre National de Lyon, released on labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Erato and Naïve.

Emmanuel Krivine was born in Grenoble, from Russian descent through his father and Polish through his mother, and began his career as a violinist. He was awarded the Premier Prix of the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 16 and became a scholar at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium, studying with Henryk Szeryng and Yehudi Menuhin, and winning many prestigious awards. After a decisive meeting with Karl Böhm in 1965, he increasingly devoted himself to conducting. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France from 1976 until 1983, and then became Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon from 1987 until 2000. He also served as Music Director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes for eleven years between 1984 and 2004, as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg from 2006 to 2014 and more recently as Principal Guest Conductor of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.

Immediate seduction, where Krivine distilled grace and delicacy with sensuality, triggering without restraint the powerful lyricism of symphonic phrases, as if the enclosure of this small form allowed this sensitive conductor to express the whole of a heightened sentimentality.

Le Monde, September 2017

This recording has the essential qualities that one expects of Krivine, sharpness of style, commitment, freshness, imagination.

Resmusica, March 2017

Precision, power and polish, under principal guest conductor Emmanuel Krivine … The sense of excitement and expectation he conjured conveyed integrity, enthusiasm, and an eagerness to share.